The Root of Evil (A Tom Riddle story)
by vioriley
Summary: Nymera is a sixth year Ravenclaw at Hogwarts. She comes from a religious muggle family that believes her magic is a gift from the devil. One day while searching the Forbidden forest for rare plants for potions and other concoctions she runs into a boy named, Tom Riddle.
1. Chapter 1 - Nymera

Authors Note: 

Somethings will be accurate to the timeline we all know and others won't, partly to help the story flow better and partly because even as much I would like to I don't know every detail of the wizarding world :( Anyway this is the first thing I've ever got up the guts to publish so, if you read this I genuinely love you! And I hope you love it! And if you do then I love you even more!

 **NYMERA**

The smell of saltwater filled my nose. The cold wind whipped my dark hair violently around my face, tangling it in my eyelashes and obstructing my view. I could feel the steady push and pull of the water I was submerged in up to my chest. My lungs were aching with a familiar sensation that I couldn't quite place, but made me panic none the less. As I went to brush the hair out of my eyes I realized my hands were bound tightly behind my back. More panic. Just then a black billowy shape stepped in front of me.

"REPENT!" the man yelled.

A large rough hand ripped through my hair and stopped on the top of my head, pushing my face into the frigid water just as I started to scream. It immediately flooded into my lungs, turning that aching into a blazing fire in my chest. I tried to rip myself away but the more I fought, the more hands tightly gripped every part of my body, holding me down.

I was starting to lose strength. My limbs were going numb. Somehow the black of my closed eyelids got even darker. I was going to die.

I sat straight up, gasping for air. Sweat drenched my entire body, making my hair and sheets tightly cling to my skin and reminding me of the cold hands that held me in the dream. I jumped out of bed and quickly pulled up my hair; ran over to the window and pushed on the old metal frame as hard as I could causing a loud thud as it hit the stone wall of the building outside. Fresh air engulfed me. I gulped in as much as I could trying to remind myself that it was ok, I was ok.

A soft hand touched my arm, causing me to jump and hit my head on the top of the window frame.

"Another bad dream?" a small voice said from behind me.

"I wish it was just a dream." I said as I turned around to face my roommate and best friend, Annika.

"It is now. You're safe here. Come sit down with me." Her voice soothed the still all too present burning in my chest. She put her hand in mine, gave me a small smile and pulled me towards the big velvet couch by our fire place.

Most people at Hogwarts shared a room with at least three other people, but constant complaints from other girls about my night terrors made the head of our house, Flitwick, decide against trying anyone else after my second year. Annika was the only one that stuck around, leaving us with this huge room all to ourselves. At first I was embarrassed and hated all the empty space from the missing beds, but after four years of staying up all night setting off Zonko's Joke Shop portable fireworks and drinking smuggled fire whiskey with the curly haired girl that now sat next to me, I couldn't imagine anything else.

"Which one was it this time?" she asked.

"Just the one where my dad and his crazy ass cult try their best to drown me for being magical, no big deal."

She laughed but I could tell she wasn't buying my nonchalance.

"I'll make us some of my special hot cocoa." she said with a smile. Special of course meant there would be more alcohol than cocoa, but I was perfectly okay with that. She hopped up and headed toward the cabinets that held all our late night snacks. I studied her as she went. Her walk, even now at 3 a.m., was practically a skip. Her long brown hair fell in kinky, messy curls down to her waist. She was even shorter than me, which is saying something because I barely met the 5'4" mark at our yearly check ups. Her dark skin glowed in the dim light of the lamp she quickly lit. She was beautiful and full of life. To say I envied her would be an understatement.

My mind wandered back to the dream, which of course wasn't actually a dream, but instead a memory. I was born into a muggle family and not just any muggle family, one that was highly religious and completely insane. At the first sign of my magical inclination my parents began performing exorcisms and other ridiculous torture tactics, like pretty much drowning me, to try to "fix" me and "release the devil from my soul." I rolled my eyes.

"What was that for?!" Annika pouted as she handed me the steaming cup, mistaking my gesture for something directed at her.

"Oh nothing, just that if I drink all this my breath will probably start a fire in Potions in the morning." I teased.

She gave me a proud look and curled up beside me as we sat in silence sipping our drinks, until we eventually dozed off.

That morning I woke up to Annika violently shaking me, "Wake UP! We're going to late again and I'm NOT writing another paper about the mistreatment of trolls." she whined.

I cleared the sleep from my eyes, groaned and stood up. My head and stomach ached indicating that I hadn't slept nearly enough. I quickly put on my robes and gave myself a once over in our huge full length mirror. My dark hair was pulled up in a messy bun on top of my head with tendrils falling down all around my face. My pale skin had a weird yellowish tint to it which only made the dark purple rings around my eyes stand out even more. I groaned again and Annika pulled me out the door.

We rushed down quickly emptying hallways towards our first hour class, Potions. We burst into the room and were made quickly aware that class had already started when Professor Slughorn stopped in the middle of his sentence to glare in our direction.

"You two must really think you're something special to show up late to this class twice in one month." he grimaced, "Detention after class. Sit." I caught his eye just in time to see the wink he threw our way, something so small and subtle I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't known to look. I disguised my smile with an exaggerated pout and we quickly took our normal spots.

To anyone else, it seemed as though he was pissed and punishing us with his declaration but the three of us knew he was just giving me an easy excuse to go roam the grounds looking for plants, for his potions and my ever-growing collection. Slughorn was one of the only people, other than Annika, I had really opened up to about my past and it's continuous effect on my life. We'd already tried what seemed like hundreds of potions to try to put a stop to the visions that haunted me in my sleep but so far to no avail.

The class passed as normal. A few kids majorly messed up their Volubilis potions creating a bubbly, smelly mess but most of us at this point had figured out how to get done quickly so we could gossip for the remaining hour.

After class, Professor Slughorn walked up to our work space and slid a piece of parchment in my direction.

"You look terrible." he said with an obvious lighthearted tone, but I could see the concern in his eyes. I glanced at the parchment and saw a list of unfamiliar names.

"Just out too late partying, you know how we are P. Slug." I gave him a light nudge on the shoulder and continued, "Did you find something new you want to try? I don't recognize any of these plants and that's hard to accomplish."

Annika snatched the list from my hand, "Ugh, can any of these get us high, Slughorn? You can't take away my girl for an entire hour and have her return with nothing but a bunch of weird looking leaves."

I looked at her with amazement, knowing that if anyone overheard her talking that way we would be in for a lot more than some fake detention, but I couldn't deny I had been wondering the same thing. We'd been looking for something new to add to our nights of rule breaking fun for months. Professor Slughorn laughed his low throaty laugh and then quickly looked around. More seriously he said,

"I'm afraid the two of you will have to find those on your own, I'm trying to help Ms. Lune and yourself achieve a full nights sleep occasionally." Though he seemed more serious, the glint never left his eye and I could tell he found Annika just as amusing as I did. She huffed and packed up her things, heading for the classroom door mumbling something like,

"I bet those _would_ make her sleep better if we could ever find them."

We were both trying not to laugh when he looked in my direction again,

"You'd better go too, I can't get you excused for more than one class and you have a lot to find. I put some hints as to where you might find. Have fun." He winked at me one more time and headed toward his office. That was a little strange, usually the hunts he sent me on were pretty straight forward. The school grounds were huge but there were specific areas where things good for potions and herbology grew.

I headed outside giving myself a few minutes to take in the beauty of my school and the crisp fall weather before pulling out the list. Eventually I unfolded it and read over it more carefully. Nasturtium, puffapod, rue, witch's ganglion, alihotsy. I stared at the list trying to remember any of these names from The Book of Rare Plants Annika got me for my birthday. That's when I noticed the "FF" written in the corner with a smiley face next to it. The Forbidden Forest.

Despite its name, the forest was by far my favorite place on the grounds. It had a mystical, ethereal feel to it while also making me feel like I was always being watched. The combination made me feel as though I could float through the trees on a cloud of fear and excitement, I loved it.

I practically ran to the forest quickly passing up the signs pinned on the outskirts that read "ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK" At least they knew nothing would stop students from occasionally adventuring in.

The shade of the trees created a chill in the air. I could hear creatures rustling around in the dry leaves, probably trying to decide if I was something they could eat. The wind was blowing lightly, stirring up the scent of dirt and the nearby lake. I couldn't stop myself from smiling, it was bliss. I quickly let down my hair, kicked off my shoes, pulled off my robes and tucked them away in my bag, which I hung on a branch I knew would be easy to find on my way out. I stood there in my khaki shorts and loose white v neck shirt, completely absorbing my surroundings. After a minute, I took off running. Feeling the ground under my feet and watching my surroundings blur past made me feel as if this was where I belonged, like I could just blend in with all the mysterious things living out here.

I came to a stop at an area I knew was known to have some pretty rare plants and began inspecting each sprout and bulb I could find. Surprisingly it only took me about twenty minutes to find almost everything so I began grabbing some for my own collection.

I was so caught up in a weird flowery plant that was leaking green goo and a bitter odor, trying to decide if it was worth the risk to touch it or not, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had completely missed the obvious snapping of twigs and rustle of leaves heading in my direction.

But I didn't. My head snapped up and I whipped my wand out of my back pocket. I loved it out here but I knew it had the potential to be dangerous. I was crouched down, arms full of plants, looking wildly around me when I saw a boy about my age, leaning against a tree, obviously trying to suppress a laugh. He was tall, with wavy brown hair that fell down over his face a little. His smile was crooked and adorable but didn't quite reach his hazel almond shaped eyes. He was cute, really cute. And I looked like a crazed, wild person. Well, this was embarrassing.


	2. Chapter 2 - Tom

**TOM**

I couldn't contain my laughter anymore. I was walking through the woods, expecting at most to see a centaur or a huge spider, and somehow ran into the most crazed looking girl I'd ever seen. She was crouched down in front of a repulsive plant, which looked to be poisonous, studying it like it was the most interesting thing she'd ever seen. She put her hand out to touch it a few times, but just ended up hovering close instead and then pulling away, dropping some of the plants she was cradling like a child. I made some noise trying to let her know I was there. Her eyes tore away from the plant and began darting around trying to find what had caused the noise. She whipped out her wand and pointed it in the opposite direction of where I was standing, dropping all of her findings to the ground. Eventually her wild eyes found me. I could see her clearly. Her long black hair was a mess, like she'd been standing in strong wind for hours; her bangs were long, falling just above her eyes and there was a leaf resting on top of her head. Her eyes were bright green and surrounded by dark rings that brought out the milky color of her skin. She was barefoot and completely filthy. As soon as she looked at me I saw how terrified she was and busted out laughing. The fear quickly left her face and turned to a scowl, she pointed her wand right at my head now.

"You think it's funny to scare the shit out of girls that are alone in the woods?" she asked with an attitude. I thought I almost saw the corners of her mouth twitch up into a smile. I was laughing even harder now.

"WHAT?!" she practically shouted.

"I do think it's funny that you're out here looking like this," I waved my arm at her, "in the middle of a school day in the Forbidden Forest I might add, pointing your wand directly at my face, but I'm the one who scared you." She looked down at her filthy legs and feet, which I could see now had small bleeding scrapes all over them. What had this girl been doing? When she looked back up at me she wore a defeated but playful smile and hesitantly lowered her wand.

"Well I wasn't exactly expecting anyone to be out here either. I was trying to gather some plants for Potions class. What are you doing out here?" I moved closer to her, handing her the white handkerchief I always kept in my pocket.

"I didn't feel like learning the History of Magic today. You're bleeding by the way." I said matter of factly. She pushed my hand back toward me, rejecting the kerchief.

"I don't mind. Since you're here anyway, help me carry these back to Professor Slughorn's classroom, as long as you don't mind being seen with a Ravenclaw." She glanced at the green and silver serpent emblem stitched into my robe. I shrugged. She tucked her wand away and immediately began piling the freshly picked plants into my arms. We started to head in the direction of the castle when she yelled,

"Wait!" and quickly ran back in the direction we came from. I stood there for about a minute wondering what she could possibly be doing now when I saw her heading back. In her hand she held the weird flower she was staring at before, the smelly green goo dripping down her forearm. She wore a cocky expression that said "I got you, you little shit."

"Did you know that wouldn't kill you the instant you touched it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course." she said with a wink. I couldn't help but smile.

The walk back to the castle was quiet after that. I didn't know what to say and she seemed lost in her own thoughts. We walked into the empty classroom and she lead me to a wall of bins, quickly emptying her arms into one and mine into another.

"Does Slughorn often send you out into the forest to do his dirty work?" I questioned. Her expression turned guilty.

"He doesn't know I was out there." I could tell by her tone she was making it up as she went, "I got the plants he asked for and then went to look for some of my own."

I laughed a little, thinking that if she knew why I was really out there, she wouldn't feel the need to lie. Then I realized if she knew that she wouldn't even be having this conversation with me, so I pushed that thought to the back of my mind. We stood there awkwardly for a minute before she said,

"I'm Nymera, by the way. Sixth year Ravenclaw." She stuck her goo covered hand out to shake mine. I hesitated for a second causing her to look down and realize what she was offering me. She blushed and started to pull away, but I grabbed her hand and shook it firmly before she could.

"I'm Tom Riddle. Slytherin, Seventh year."

She grinned wide, showing a dimple in her cheek.

"I should be going. I have DADA next and I can't afford anymore detentions." she said as she gathered her things. I nodded and we walked out of the room and headed in our separate ways.

I walked to my third hour, Transfiguration, trying not to think about that strange girl I had just encountered. I took my seat just as McGonagall was beginning the days lesson. An hour passed in what felt like a second, but I hadn't taken a single note and honestly didn't even know what the lesson had been about. I couldn't stop thinking about how she looked completely insane, like she could kill someone with just a look while simultaneously looking scared and innocent. I could feel the familiar feeling of anger start to rise, filling my body quickly. In the seven years I'd been at Hogwarts I'd never once even spared a second glance for a girl and now here I was daydreaming in class about one. It was pathetic. I vowed at that moment I would never speak to her again and would avoid her completely when possible. I doubted it would even be necessary, the school was huge after all.


End file.
